Photochemical and photophysical behaviour of porphyrins and phthalocyanines irradiated with violet or ultraviolet light

Photochemical irradiation of porphyrins or phthalocyanines with violet or ultraviolet light absorbed by their second or higher absorption bands populates their higher excited states. These higher excited states generally dissipate very rapidly, but, competing with such rapid deactivation, often show unique behaviour different from the lowest excited states populated under visible light irradiation of the first absorption band, namely wavelength-dependent reactions or emission. The higher excited states often exhibit characteristic emission and enhanced reactivity in electron transfer, energy transfer and so on, competing with rapid deactivation. This paper attempts to summarize our work, perfomed particularly by means of femtosecond spectroscopy, and recent progress in this area.